Location Based System for Activity Tracking of Senior Adults Outside the Home

Abstract

The focus of developing technology to assist in maintaining home independence is currently narrowly centered on residential spaces and the activity occurring within the home. An active person may spend large amounts of time outside the home, and as a result, may skew the view of their activity levels. It is clear that outdoor mobility and outdoor activities play an important role in aging independently. In addition to instrumental activities of daily living such as transportation and shopping, other important components of higher-level function, such as exercise, dog walking, and socializing occur outside the home. A better understanding of these community-based behaviors of older adults would add to our understanding of aging, and eventually contribute to our ability to create interventions to keep older adults independent in their own communities. The purpose of this proposal is to establish real-time data capture techniques to monitor key specific activities conducted by older adults outside the home environment.